Reading List: Send Me Your Movie Recommendations, Cuz This Weekend's A "Wrap Myself In A Fleece Blanket Like A Human Burrito" Kind Of Jam.
Want to get a jump on Giving Tuesday as well make me put my money where my mouth is? Consider donating to Odd Salon’s 2021 Survival Fund - I’m matching donations up to $1000 total!
Darlings, it’s the weekend! So I hope you’ve made it through this week relatively unscathed, and that you’re ready to spend the next couple of days off resting, rebuilding, and finding a way to work ice cream into your diet in a substantive way. If you live anywhere near a Salt and Straw, may I humbly suggest that you try out the Sweet Potato Casserole w/ Maple Pecans flavor, it is one of the most delicious things I have ever tried and is basically the only vehicle from which I will accept marshmallow whip every again. I think we all deserve a weekend of sleeping in, and then staying in with a movie and a pint (of ice cream).
I started rewatching Veep again yesterday and let me tell you, while it is still hilarious, it’s lost some of its edge considering (gestures wildly at 2020 and the past four years) and reminds me that I think members of the current administration may have watched it as a "how-to”. Sigh.
TO THE LONGREADS!
Maria Cramer, Dolly Parton: Singer, Songwriter, Pandemic Savior? (The New York Times) - So many of you sent me notes about this, and the fact that you all know just how much I love Dolly Parton warms my cold heart. Like, could she be any cooler? She’s quietly done more good with her charitable activities than so many blustery celebs, and she’s one of the best songwriters of the 20th century, AND the NYT told me that people in Tennessee are petitioning to have confederate statues replaced with statues of her- COME ON, THAT’S AN AMAZING IDEA. Now, it should be noted that a couple years back, there was a a spotlight on the problematic elements of her Civil War-themed dinner theater (formerly known as Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede) that seemingly romanticized the period a la Gone With The Wind but it seems as if her production company is dealing with some of those issues, so she’s still a gall darned hero in my book. This has been Amy’s Dolly Parton corner, thank you for stopping on by.
Washington Post, What if all COVID-19 deaths in the United States had happened in your neighborhood? Essentially, this interactive data presentation visually likens COVID-19 deaths to an atom bomb going off next door (my interpretation, not at ALL how the publication frames it.) It’s terrifying (and by the way, the US has surpassed the number of deaths from COVID-19 versus the number of deaths in either Hiroshima or Nagaski (129,000 and 226,000, respectively.)
Jack Herrera, Trump Didn’t Win the Latino Vote in Texas. He Won the Tejano Vote. (POLITICO) - This is a fascinating micro look at a community in the Rio Grande valley that serves as a reminder to those Democratic strategists who blindly believe that demographics are destiny… maybe we should instead invest in figuring out how to communicate a platform that speaks to an individual experience and illustrates the good that government can do for communities? Just a thought.
Jeffrey Goldberg, Why Obama Fears for Our Democracy (The Atlantic) - Reading this tonight, but woooooooooof, I imagine it won’t be great for my political anxieties.
Zach Baron, George Clooney When We Need Him Most (GQ) - Celebrity profiles can be pretty hit or miss, but this portrait of a superstar in quarantine is charming as all heck. And BRB, changing my OKCupid profile to read “if you don’t embody the spirit of George Clooney being enormously proud of the professional accomplishments of his wife, I just don’t want it”.
Y’all are fab. Be kind to each other, and wear those masks, mmmkay?
Xoxo Amy